


Back to square run

by persephx



Series: One small run for a man [1]
Category: Marvel Cinematic Universe
Genre: (?), (it's not like it's graphic but it's kinda implicit), Alternate Universe - No Powers, Challenges, First Meetings, I really don't know how to tag, M/M, Running, YouTube, haha - Freeform, meet cute, race the tube, running disaster clint barton, that makes sense once you read the fic sooooo
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-09-18
Updated: 2019-09-18
Packaged: 2020-10-21 10:29:15
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,461
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20692013
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/persephx/pseuds/persephx
Summary: There's been a challenge going around lately, and maybe it's not the smartest thing to do, but when Natasha says Clint won't be able to race the tube, he has to prove her wrong. He just has to run from one subway station to another in the same time as the train. Should be doable.Then, unexpected obstacles get in his way.- based on this video





	Back to square run

**Author's Note:**

> I wrote this after two of the most draining days I've had this month, so maybe it's not super high quality, but it's what I could do. Also, I don't have much experience with pieces so short, when I'm doing one-shots I usually try to get them at least to +5k words, but I wanted to try to make something shorter. The reason for that is half that I didn't think this was enough plot to make it a bigger thing and also that I just wanted to write something fast and post it. I still had to spend a few days with it, soooo... yeah
> 
> I'm working on a second part with their date - based on a day I spent at brooklyn this summer when I went to NYC :)) 
> 
> PS: The title is a pun. I had to look it up, but I love it

It all started when Natasha dared Clint. She did that fairly often. Well, too often. And he never backed down because that’s who we was. So that ended with the both of them walking to a subway station, a go-pro strapped to Clint’s head and a camera in Nat’s hands.

Maybe it was stupid, but when his best friend had said that there was no way he could do the “race the tube” challenge, he had taken it personal. So yeah, Clint was shy of thirty, but he was also fit, okay? He could totally manage to get from one station to another in the same time as the subway. If Disney had taught him something it was that he could do everything if he believed in it. Yeah, that was bullshit, but he had trained enough to not make an ass of himself and even maybe impress Nat a little bit.

He descended the stairs and was engulfed in the trademark heat of New York’s subway stations, always present to fuck with you all year around. He was already kind of sweating, nervous and excited, scared of failure, as always.

“Are you ready?” Nat asked, smirking.

Nat was sure she was going to win their bet – dinner at Scarr’s – and she was getting cocky, as she usually did. It didn’t bother Clint, he knew for sure he was going to come out of this as the winner. “You have three minutes to chicken out,” she continued, pointing at the screen where they were displaying the arrival times.

His only answer was to raise his eyebrows. As if Clint ever backed down from a dare.

She shrugged, as if telling him that he was free to do whatever he wanted, which, yeah, he was, and continued with her confident stride.

“We should turn on the cameras,” Clint said when two minutes had passed, and they both did it. “Okay so. I stay in the train for one stop, then run the other, then we go to stuff our faces.”

“Sounds like a plan,” Natasha was smiling like she knew what was coming, but Clint couldn’t help but think that joke was on her, because what was coming was him shutting her big mouth and making her have some faith in him.

Maybe he was exaggerating.

As the train arrived, he caught the look his friend was giving him, still smirking as if she’d already won.

Maybe he was _not_ exaggerating.

They spent the time between the first stop and the second in silence. He was too nervous and too keyed up to have a conversation, and Nat probably felt that. Well, it was safe to say that anyone who had been looking at them by any chance was aware of how Clint felt, as he could not be still.

As soon as they arrived at the stop and the doors opened, he sprinted out of the train, hearing Nat’s shout of good luck. He was glad he had let her pick out the stations, as she’d been the one to think that it couldn’t be one that got too crowded, or he’d most likely end up in the tracks.

He rushed up the set of stairs and went through the turnstile, thanking everything above that he didn’t need to jump, but the damning everything above when he realized exactly how much it hurt to go through those at high speed. Still, he didn’t stop. In no time he was out of the station, and he rushed through the streets, sorting between the few people that were in the street, yes, he was very glad that he had let Natasha choose the route.

He wasn’t even that far from his destination when suddenly he crashed against someone so hard that they both ended up in the floor. He hit his elbow, and twisted his ankle somehow, although it didn’t feel like it was sprained. He groaned, both because of the pain and because he realized that he’d failed his challenge.

Then, he looked at the person he’s crashed against. It was a man with neck-long, brown hair and the beginning of a beard that was too long for being called stubble but still to short to be a full beard. He had blue eyes and he was looking angrily at Clint. Who hadn’t apologized. He hadn’t apologized after basically running over an innocent pedestrian at god knows what speed. He was an asshole.

“Shit, I’m sorry,” he said. He sprung to his feet, ignoring the sting in his ankle, and offered a hand to the poor man.

The guy was glaring at him, but it dimmed just a little bit when he said that. Clint suspected he hadn’t been expected an apology, this was New York, and it was filled with assholes like that. The man nodded.

“Are you okay?” Clint asked. The man was clutching his wrist but there was nothing else that seemed to be bothering.

“Yeah, yes,” he said in a raspy voice. Then, he winced.

“You sure?” Clint asked, sort of concerned.

“Yeah, I just…” the man paused to take a deep breath “I think I might have sprained my wrist.”

Fan-fucking-tastic.

“I’m so, _so_ sorry, man,” Clint said again, his mind going at a hundred per minute. “Do you need to go to a hospital? Of course you need to go to a hospital, I sprained your wrist. Do you need me to take you there? I mean, I don’t have a car. But I can drive, I’m just bad at it. Anyways I was talking about keeping you company while you’re there? I’m really sorry.”

“Hey, it’s… Well, maybe not okay. What the hell were you doing running like that here?”

Clint really did not want to answer, but he lowered his head and did. “It’s a challenge, basically you have to run from one subway station to another in the same time as the train.”

“That’s…”

“Dumb, I know.”

“Well, I was going to go with difficult, but sure.”

Clint rubbed his forehead. “I should have been more careful but I really didn’t see you at all until I was already going down.”

“Don’t worry, dude, I didn’t see you either.”

They stay in silence for a couple of minutes, to the point where it becomes uncomfortable.

“Hey so, do you want me to go with you to the clinic or the hospital or wherever you’re going to have that checked?” Clint asked, nodding towards the man’s hand.

“Uhh. You probably have something to do, it’s fine.”

“I really don’t. I have my best friend waiting for me somewhere in the subway and I really don’t want to face her because she’ll think this means she won the bet. It doesn’t count, though, it shouldn’t count. There were strenuous situations. So…”

“And you’d prefer going to the hospital with a stranger?”

“Wouldn’t you?”

He only got a hum as an answer, so he also didn’t comment farther on it.

“So…”

“Yeah…”

It was awkward. They didn’t know each other and just because the guy was cute – gorgeous, super-hot, incredibly hansom – didn’t mean that Clint was going to know what the heck to do around him. He was necessarily a people person, he was an awkward, messy guy. One that didn’t have any conversation to the man he was now going to the hospital with.

“Should we take the subway?” the guy winced.

Clint shrugged. “I guess, yeah.”

“Cool.”

They were in silence for the most part of the train ride until Clint let out a huff and buried a hand in his hair. “God this is awkward, I’m sorry.”

The man laughed softly. “Yeah it is, but… I mean, it’s okay.”

Clint looked at him and saw the guy looking at his injured hand, that was definitely swelling up. Then it came to him. “Shit I don’t even know your name.”

The nameless guy looked at him, also half surprised as if he hadn’t really realized it until Clint had said it. “James. Bucky.” Clint looked at him frowning, and the guy looked away just for a second, almost embarrassed. “My name is James, but hardly anyone calls me that, it’s weird when they do. I go by Bucky.”

“Oh. Good. Mine’s Clint. I go by Clint.”

That startled a laugh out of Bucky, and for some reason, Clint actually felt accomplished. It was nice.

The atmosphere around them was a lot less uncomfortable after that, to the point that it almost felt like they’d be friends – or at least known each other – before the accident. Somehow, when Clint was getting back to the subway after they’d finally gotten out of the hospital hours later, he had Bucky’s phone and a date scheduled for Saturday.


End file.
